Friday, December 14, 2018

(Jerusalem) Israel found out the hard way that your bog standard armoured personal carrier (APC) as in service with other nations, don't cut the mustard on the modern battlefield. Where with the proliferation of mines, anti-tank missiles have seen devastating losses of infantry men inside their so called battlefield taxis. To try and resolve this issue the IDF , started customising the T55 tanks it had captured off the neighbours into the Achzarit heavily armoured APC.

This they achieved by removing the turret, fitting a smaller more powerful engine , a crew compartment and passenger access ramp at the rear. This proved to be very successful and the IDF carried out similar modifications with the Centurion tank. A few years back, the IDF decided to move away from rebuilding old tanks into APCs and instead build one from scratch using the body of the current Israel main battle tank and in 2008 they revealed the Namer Heavy APC

The Namer at 60 tonnes carries enough armour to ensure that it can support IDF tanks with a squad of 12 men , which it did during Operation Protective Edge in 2014 when after numerous missile strikes, a 1/2 tonne mine detonation and the collapse of a house on the Namers saw not one person inside injured or the disablement of the vehicle. Since 2016 all Namers have been fitted with the Trophy APS system which further enhances its survivability on the modern battlefield. Well the IDF have enhanced its battlefield creds even further by the fitting of a turret, which includes a 30mm cannon and 2 Spike MR missiles which changes it from an APC to an Infantry fighting vehicle. Which means that the Namer will be able to go toe to toe with an entrenched enemy.